Point of View in Amy Tan’s Short Story, Two Kinds Essay

Point of View in Amy Tan’s Short Story, Two Kinds In her short story Two Kinds, Amy Tan utilizes the daughters point of view to share a mothers attempts to control her daughters hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mothers attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman. Two Kinds is a powerful example of differing personalities causing struggles†¦show more content†¦The daughter is bored with her mothers dreams and lets her pride take over. She often questions her self-worth, and she decides that she respects herself as nothing more than the normal girl that she is and always will be. Her mother is trying to mold her into something that she can never be, she believes, and only by her futile attempts to rebel can she hold on to the respect that she has for herself. The daughter is motivated only to fail so that she may continue on her quest to be normal. Her only motivation for success derives from her own vanity; although she cannot admit it to herself or her mother, she wants the audience to see her as that something that she is not, that same something that her mother hopes she could be. After her failure to satisfy her mother and herself at the talent show, the relationship between them soured at an accelerated pace, culminating in one final argument. Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter! the mother shouted. Then I wish I werent your daughter, came the reply. A few words later, the daughter delivered the blow that all but destroyed the mothers dreams: Then I wish Id never been born! I wish I were dead! Like them, she screamed, alluding to her mothers miscarriages. In the years that followed, I failed her many times, each time asserting myShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Two Kinds By Amy Tan1567 Words   |  7 Pages One of the most complex relationships is that of a mother and daughter. Amy Tan is an author who writes about her life growing up as an Asian-American in Chinatown. Her novel The Joy Luck Club is a series of short stories about Chinese mothers and their assimilated daughters. One of these stories is â€Å"Two Kinds,† which looks into the life of Jing-Mei Woo and her struggle to gain a sense of self. 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